With the help of a $5 million donation, Milford Regional Medical Center has now raised $15 million toward its $25 million goal to help fund the hospital's expansion.

The $54 million plan to expand the emergency room and intensive care unit received the $5 million fundraising boost from Kevin Meehan, a Millis resident and owner of Imperial Cars in Mendon.

“This is the best hospital around, I bring my whole family here,” said Meehan of why he decided to give such a large donation. “The hospital makes the community.”

Hospital officials met on Tuesday to thank Meehan for his donation and kick off another round of fundraising, dubbed the Excellence campaign, to bring in the remaining $10 million they need.

“We’re thrilled and overwhelmed by his donation,” said Milford Regional President Ed Kelly. “Beyond this donation, Kevin has been a real leader at the hospital and has made a great difference in how we run the hospital.”

Milford Regional CEO Frank Saba said the hospital hopes to reach its fundraising goal with the help of those within the community.

“Our goal of $25 million is ambitious, but we know we can reach it,” Saba said. “We have been successful and will continue to be successful because the community here understands our needs.”

The hospital’s proposed expansion, which has been in the planning stages for the last three years, is a 115,000-square-foot three-story addition to be built on the east side of the current building located at the intersection of Rtes. 16 and 140.

Milford Regional’s expanded emergency department would include 50 private treatment rooms, new screening areas, and a larger waiting room, to accommodate up to 70,000 visits a year. In 2012, the hospital recorded 56,210 emergency visits.

The expansion of the intensive care unit will add 16 treatment rooms to a facility that currently only has 10 and increase the number of single-bed rooms to 132, which will help prevent the spread of infection and allowing for privacy. The hospital also hopes to convert some multi-bed rooms to single-bed rooms.

The proposed addition will extend the building toward Huntoon Slip Road and re-locate some of the parking, some of which will be incorporated as a lower-level garage under a portion of the building, creating 88 new spaces.

State Sen. Richard Moore and state Rep. John Fernandes also voiced their support for the expansion project on Tuesday.

“To have a state-of-the-art emergency room is a vital part of the community,” Moore said.

“To have a facility like this, just minutes away, is something we need to have and should invest in,” Fernandes said. “I hope the community can stretch and help reach that (fundraising) goal.”

Contact Lindsay Corcoran at 508-634-7582 or lcorcoran@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @LacorcMDN.